Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Advice from Axiom Owners Audition Mishap

Speaking of Matthews, I assume you're referring to the Radio City music hall performance with Tim Reynolds. Personally, it blew me away...especially the Dolby TrueHD 24bit mix. It was awesome to hear a difference between it and the PCM mix.

SK, if you are willing to wait then I would say hold off for the EP800 then add another EP800 later!

SK - I'm relieved to see your post as I was beginning to think I'd turned you off Axiom forever. In fact, I've been kicking myself ever since you left to the point where my wife has forbade me talking about it any further (she's sick of hearing me whining). To say it one more time, I feel terrible about how it worked out! Ugh!!!

But, to answer your questions - the reason you thought the M80s sounded bright is absolutely spot on. They were crossed over at 60 or 80 hz depending on whether we were listening to 2-channel or multi-channel audio, and as a result you were hearing only a fraction of their full capabilities. And, without a sub, no question the high end of the frequency range was being overemphasized. If I'd known the subs were off I could have at least played them full range which also would have been more impressive and balanced than how you heard them.

During the whole audition, I kept thinking to myself - what is wrong here? Unfortunately, like SK said, we only had 20-30 minutes of real listening time and a couple of times I even checked to make sure the 600 was on, and while it was moving (barely), it just sounded strange.

If I have any reasonable excuse it is the fact that I literally have not turned that system past 70 dB since our baby was born 6 weeks ago... and in-between that time and now we added the chairs and riser like I mentioned, and I was thinking that maybe the new acoustics had just thrown the room completely out of whack. As soon as SK left, I got my SPL out and measured output on the different channels. When I got to the sub channel, it was clear something was totally wrong. Of course, being a typical guy, my first solution was, "well, maybe I need to turn it up!"

I cranked up the dial on the 600 from it's former ~20% volume position (first mistake) and then the level on the receiver to +12 (from +1) to make sure I hadn't just screwed something up (2nd mistake)... Alas, still next to no sound.

Going back to the sub I'd unplugged originally (and since re-plugged in), I no more than brushed the RCA input wires and nearly scared myself to death. Both subs started rumbling so loudly that the walls, window frames and doors were shaking. I knocked something off the bathroom wall in the next room and heard my wife shriek downstairs... (which was quickly followed by "TURN IT DOWN!") [which I barely heard over the rumbling, but was wise enough to quickly obey]

I can't help but laugh thinking about that part of it as that much at least was absolutely hilarious (once my heart stopped pounding)... but looking back at the whole experience... sheesh, just seriously bad luck.

So - SK, to make a long story short, you are absolutely on the right track with Axiom, but unfortunately you're in the same position you were before the audition, going a lot on gut feel and a little on what you've heard. Do you come to Austin regularly enough for work or otherwise to schedule a second visit before you buy? (during which no wire tweaking will be allowed or invited)

If so, lunch is on me (maybe we can even open the bottle of wine you brought me, which I feel guilty about accepting after what happened)... it's the very least I can do. Thanks for posting the note you did above. Makes me feel a lot better. If there's more we can do to help, please keep the questions coming.

Jason

OK, Now THAT one I would pay $3.50 for on YouTube....

SK - to give you another opinion on your subwoofer questions, I guess for me it would depend on how long before the 800 is released. I don't think I saw any date mentioned, and the Audioholics article made it look like there is still some work to do before it will be released. Knowing how close you are to purchasing, I'd personally have a hard time waiting, but that might just be me.

If I were in your shoes, I'd buy the 600 now and add another one later (or an 800 if/when it is released). There is no reason they wouldn't work together quite well in a room as they're similar enough to rumble together happily.

I'm not disputing the recommendations for the dual 500s (or 600s or 800s), but I'm going more on what you told me about having to deal with appeasing a spouse as well. For many of us, there is a compromise to be made between following audio guidelines to the "T" and accepting the fact that your wife has a vote in the situation as well, one that usually is not driven by audio quality (and even more seldom by maximum SPL output).

Also, since your listening area is not a dedicated media room and these subs will be in full sight, having one decent-sized subwoofer is already going to stress the wife's nerves a bit, and going to two would be an argument many of us would struggle to win (at least I know I would).

Also, if you get one sub now, you could also consider the trade up program in the future if you really feel like you need to replace it with an 800 - I was just looking what my EP-600 would be worth as a trade-up and it looks like I would only lose about $300 of the original value if trading up to an 800 (using an estimated price of $2400), so if I (you) really wanted the 800 in a year or so, you won't have lost a lot and will have enjoyed the great sound of the 600 in the meantime. (for me, it's been worth the $300 already - minus the 30 minutes you were here during which it was worth $o.oo)

Happy shopping!

Jason

Now you're talking! That's an idea I might be able to live with (if only I could wait, hmm, Houston, I think we may have a problem).

OK thanks for the update, that helps a lot, because at 1st the M80s seemed pristine, then somewhat imbalanced as we discussed, I can stop worrying about that now!

I must say it sounds quite hysterical how the sub finally came back to life out of the blue, is that related to what you were saying on another thread about the input being loose?

I'm usually in Austin once a month, however, I'm not sure I'll be waiting that long to buy, if so I might take you up on that, thanks for the offer.

I have been thinking exactly what you said as the most likely scenario, i.e., buying the ep600 and then upgrading to the ep800 as soon as it comes out.

Jason, enjoy the wine, you were very gracious to open your home to me, the least I could do is bring a housewarming gift.

SK

You know - I actually don't understand why such a small move caused it to kill the sound completely... it's still concerning to me because the way the room shakes when they both are running would seem enough to actually knock it loose again, though it never has happened before this, so I'm guessing I must have given it a good jostle when I pulled the power plug.

The subs are daisy chained together, so in this case, adjusting the input wire on the Earthquake sub was causing the entire connection to drop to both subs (so the 600 gets a free pass on this one, it was not to blame). It appears that the input signal dropped to the Earthquake and therefore wasn't passed to the Epicenter (no Earthquake = No Epicenter, right?)

In any case... it's one of those things that likely will never happen again, it was your good luck to experience it with me.

Thanks for lifting my burden of guilt. Do call/write next time you're down, if you haven't received your system yet (or even if you have), you're welcome to come back to hear the system in it's true full glory.

Jason